


META: Kylo Ren's Music

by rexluscus



Series: Rex's Star Wars Meta [4]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-14 10:55:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16911618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rexluscus/pseuds/rexluscus
Summary: An essay analyzing Kylo Ren's musical motifs inThe Force Awakens.





	META: Kylo Ren's Music

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know much about music, but here we are.

The music in  _Star Wars_  does a lot of storytelling work. John Williams associates motifs with particular characters and themes, so a lot of the time,  _the music itself_  tells you things the action and dialogue don’t explicitly articulate. **  
**

Kylo Ren’s music is ambiguous and complex, so I wanted to take a closer look at how it participates in his characterization.  **His theme is composed of three motifs**  that we hear separately at different moments in the film, and I wondered whether a distinct meaning adheres to each of them individually. I’m almost positive they aren’t interchangeable, but it’s also unclear how their meanings differ.

Here’s my analysis of Kylo Ren’s music on the TFA soundtrack. I don’t know  _that_  much about music so it isn’t super sophisticated. I mostly just identify his motifs, track when we hear them in the film, and offer some theories about what they might mean.

* * *

We only hear a full statement of Kylo Ren’s theme, with the three motifs combined, during the end titles, never during the film itself. Find the track on the soundtrack album called  **“The Jedi Steps and Finale”**  and skip to  **4:15** ; Kylo’s theme comes right after Rey’s. It begins with a rising minor scale motif on string basses. Then, laid over top of that, a second, falling motif comes in on the horns. These two motifs play together for a few bars, some higher brass joins in, and then they give way to the third motif, which is that sinister brassy fanfare you almost certainly recognize.

So that’s the order of Kylo’s three motifs in his theme—but the film  _introduces_  them in the opposite order. We hear the  **Third Motif** first, over that shot of Kylo’s command shuttle descending toward the village on Jakku—our introduction to his character. It’s very imperial-sounding; in fact, it’s similar to the Emperor’s theme in ROTJ, although with different orchestration. The  **Second Motif** , which is more melancholy, more tragic, doesn’t occur until about twenty minutes into the film, right after Hux has warned Kylo about letting his “personal interest” interfere with their orders. We also hear it when Han and Leia talk about Ben. The  **First Motif** we only hear once, and not even when Kylo is onscreen; it’s used as a prelude to the Second Motif, and we hear it as Rey is trying to escape before Kylo returns from talking to Snoke. The Second and Third Motifs combine near the end of Kylo’s lightsaber duel with Rey, but we only hear all three together in the end titles.

Okay, now onto TFA itself.

##  **KYLO REN: A MUSICAL TIMELINE OF TFA**

Here are all the statements of Kylo Ren’s motifs I could find, using timecodes from my iTunes copy of TFA:

 **THIRD MOTIF**   **6:12** : Kylo’s command shuttle descends toward the village on Jakku, right after Finn’s friend dies and leaves those bloody streaks on his mask

(Note: there are two variants of the Third Motif, one in which the first three notes are of equal duration, and one in which the second note is held longer and third shorter. When it’s introduced, we hear the first variant, along with a motif that’s reminiscent of the Imperial March. The first variant, I should point out, is more march-like, more one-two one-two. So the first instance of the Third Motif underlines Kylo’s association with Vader and the Imperial legacy.)

 **THIRD MOTIF**   **7:55**  A captured Poe is thrown at Kylo’s feet

(This time and hereafter, we hear the second variant. The motif’s shift into something less march-like could suggest Kylo’s individuation from Vader as we discover he isn’t just a Vader-clone.)

 **THIRD MOTIF 8:55**  Right after Finn fails to fire on the villagers, Kylo looks straight at him, then walks on

[ **Poe’s interrogation** : there are no statements of either motif during Kylo’s interrogation of Poe, but there’s something that sounds a little like Snoke’s theme.]

 **SECOND MOTIF 26:36**  Right after Hux says “Careful, Ren, that your personal interest not interfere with orders from Leader Snoke,” Kylo says “I want that map. For your sake, I suggest you get it.” (This is the first occurrence of the Second Motif, and it comes in right over the words “I want that map.”)

 **SECOND MOTIF**   **58:44**  Establishing shot of the  _Finalizer_  right before the Kylo-talks-to-Vader’s-mask scene. (There’s no statement of the motif in the actual scene, though.)

 **THIRD MOTIF**   **1:12:36**  Rey watches from the edge of the woods as Maz’s castle is attacked and Kylo’s shuttle appears overhead

 **THIRD MOTIF 1:13:08**  Just after we see Rey running away into the forest, Kylo strides through the ruins of Maz’s castle

 **SECOND MOTIF**   **1:17:15**  In the forest, Rey spots Kylo approaching her and shoots at him

(It’s important that the Second Motif is used here and not the Third…but more on that later.)

 **THIRD MOTIF 1:17:52**  Kylo has frozen Rey in place and walks around her, saying “The girl I’ve heard so much about…”

 **THIRD MOTIF**   **1:18:19**  Kylo looks into Rey’s mind: “The map…you’ve seen it!”

(This is actually the first variant, and the tempo in general is very slowed down)

 **SECOND MOTIF**   **1:24:44**  Han and Leia are talking about how they lost Ben; Han says “I went back to the only thing I was ever any good at” and Leia says “We both did.” The motif continues as Leia brings up Snoke and his seduction of Ben

(Note: ostensibly, the Second Motif here is associated with Snoke and the theme of seduction by the dark side. But when it first comes in, Han is talking about “going back"—about the retrograde motion Ben’s fall induced in everyone. Maybe this motif has something to do with an unhealthy fixation on or relationship to the past?)

[ **Rey’s interrogation** : throughout Kylo’s reading of Rey’s mind, we get little half-statements of the Second and Third Motifs which emphasize the similarity of their first two notes, i.e. both begin with a half step down. But mostly, as in Poe’s interrogation scene, Kylo’s mind powers are represented by sound effects, not music.]

 **SECOND MOTIF 1:28:20**  After Rey says "I’m not giving you anything” and Kylo says “We’ll see,” he thrusts his hand toward her and curls his lip as he exerts his power on her mind

(After this, we get a statement of Rey’s theme as she fights back, and the shift from Kylo’s theme to Rey’s signals the changing tides of their mental duel.)

 **THIRD MOTIF**   **1:29:50**  As Hux walks off to prepare to fire on the Resistance base, Kylo tells Snoke he can get the map from Rey, he just needs his guidance, and Snoke tells Kylo to bring Rey to him

 **FIRST MOTIF 1:30:36** Rey’s Jedi mind trick starts to work on the Stormtrooper

(Note: this is the only time we hear the First Motif in the actual movie, although we do get it in the end titles. Its significance is highly ambiguous here. We  _could_  be hearing a Kylo motif because Kylo is on his way and Rey is trying to escape him. But we could  _also_  be hearing it because Rey is using a power Kylo unwittingly taught her, a power that could represent her own first steps toward the dark side.)

 **SECOND MOTIF**   **1:30:43**  Kylo strides down the hall toward the room where Rey is being held

(Note: the Second Motif is played on the horns, with the First Motif leading directly into it, just like in the end titles)

 **THIRD MOTIF 1:44:16**  Just after we see Han and Chewie setting the charges, Kylo strides through the base at the head of a column of Stormtroopers

 **THIRD MOTIF 1:44:34**  Just after Kylo has sensed Han’s presence and dismissed the Stormtroopers with the order “Find them,” he is left alone, looking out over the chasm that Han will eventually fall into

[ **Han’s death** : when Han first spots Kylo, we don’t hear either of Kylo’s motifs, we just hear a single high note on the clarinet. There’s very little music for the first part of this scene. The music only starts again when Kylo says “I’m being torn apart.” That music sounds redemptive until Han touches the lightsaber, at which point it strikes a dissonant note. (See [Star Wars Oxygen vol. 29](http://www.rebelforceradio.com/shows/2016/3/16), 51:13-59:56 for a fuller discussion of these cues and their connection to music from the prequels.) The motif we hear when Kylo stabs Han is not one we hear anywhere else in the movie. But as Han touches Kylo’s face and falls, we hear the same melancholy music we heard when Starkiller Base destroyed the Hosnian system.]

 **THIRD MOTIF 1:50:14**  Just after Chewie detonates the charges, Kylo looks up from where he’s crouching on the bridge and sees Finn and Rey. (He makes eye contact with Finn in particular, and the Third Motif reinforces this moment’s connection with the moment in the Jakku village scene when Kylo stares at Finn.)

 **SECOND MOTIF (INCOMPLETE) 1:50:52**  Finn and Rey are brought up short by the off-screen sight of Kylo and his lit saber (which we hear but don’t see). The first two notes of the Second Motif play as Finn and Rey look at each other.

 **THIRD MOTIF 1:50:58**  Finn and Rey walk toward Kylo, and the camera pulls back to show Kylo standing there waiting for them.

(Note: in this section, the Second and Third Motifs occur close together, but in different keys.)

 **SECOND MOTIF**   **1:51:05**  As Kylo says “We’re not done yet,” Rey says “You’re a monster,” and Kylo says “It’s just us now, Han Solo can’t save you.”

[ **Kylo duels Finn** : there’s very little music during the duel with Finn, just sound effects.]

[ **Kylo duels Rey** : during the first half of Kylo’s duel with Rey, we mostly hear phrases from Rey’s Theme.]

 **SECOND MOTIF 1:55:42**  As Kylo and Rey fight, Kylo seems to have the upper hand and advances on her…

 **THIRD MOTIF**   **1:55:54**  As the ground starts to collapse and Kylo advances on Rey, the Second Motif leads right into the Third Motif, in the same key, exactly the way it does in the end titles. (This is the only time during the actual movie when the the Second and Third Motifs are combined this way.) When the Third Motif plays a second time, though, it’s extended with an additional phrase.

 **THIRD MOTIF (MODULATED) 1:56:10**  Right as Kylo says “You need a teacher, I could show you the ways of the Force.” Following its development just before this, the Third Motif now modulates into a new key as Kylo makes his offer to Rey. Then the music goes into the Force Theme as Rey closes her eyes and says “the Force,” but just as she opens her eyes, the Force Theme ends on a dissonant chord.

##  **ANALYSIS: WHAT’S IT ALL MEAN?**

It could mean many things! In general, it seems clear that, as Jimmy Mac from [Star Wars Oxygen](http://www.rebelforceradio.com/star-wars-oxygen/?rq=oxygen) put it, the Third Motif is Kylo’s “entrance music” and the Second Motif is his “getting to know you music” (see [Star Wars Oxygen vol. 27](http://www.rebelforceradio.com/shows/2016/2/2/star-wars-oxygen-vol-28-tfa-part-3), 41:45-46:40). The Third Motif is a brassy fanfare not unlike the Imperial March, whereas the Second Motif is more inward, psychological, melancholy.

So at first I thought the Third Motif was for Kylo the public figure, Kylo the First Order commander, whereas the Second Motif was for Kylo the private person, Kylo the man with motivations independent of the First Order’s. Whenever Kylo represents the power of the First Order, we always hear the Third Motif, but we first hear the Second Motif when Hux is chiding Kylo for his “personal interest.” But this interpretation doesn’t really account for the way the two motifs trade off in the lightsaber duel scene, or even in the forest abduction scene.

The Third and Second motifs do seem to be divided, broadly speaking, between Finn and Rey. Three key moments in which Kylo and Finn face each other use the Third Motif, whereas several key moments between Kylo and Rey use the Second Motif. Of course, we often hear the Third Motif in Kylo’s scenes with Rey as well—but the Second Motif accompanies a series of connected moments that relate specifically to the Force: when Rey first sees him in the forest on Takodana, as the “creature in a mask” from the vision she’s just had; when he’s interrogating her; and when she faces him in the forest on Starkiller. The First Motif (which is intertwined with the Second Motif) is specific to Rey and the Force too: we only hear it when Rey is doing her Jedi mind trick on the Stormtrooper so she can get away before Kylo comes back.

So arguably, the Second Motif has something to do with Kylo the Force-user, whereas the Third Motif is more about Kylo the unstoppable First Order enforcer. For Finn, the danger Kylo represents doesn’t specifically have to do with his Force abilities—he just exemplifies the tyranny of the First Order. But when Kylo attacks Rey on Takodana, he represents not only the First Order’s power but everything about the  _Force_  that scares her. When she uses the Jedi mind trick, she’s using powers she learned from him. When she calls him a monster for killing Han, she’s repelled by his alignment with the dark side—and she’s feeling anger and hatred that could lead  _her_  to the dark side. Plus, that whole scene is about her accepting her Force powers.

If the Second Motif is about Kylo and Rey and the Force, though, it’s difficult to explain David Collins’s observation that the  _Third_ Motif, not the Second, has a concrete musical connection to Rey’s Theme: its last three notes are the first three notes of Rey’s Theme (see [Star Wars Oxygen vol. 26](http://www.rebelforceradio.com/shows/2016/1/14/star-wars-oxygen-vol-26-the-force-awakens-part-2), 30:12 - 34:55).

Another possibility: the Second Motif might be associated with Kylo’s past and the Third Motif with his present. (The ordering of motifs in his theme in the end titles, then, could be chronological, a narrative of his development.) We hear the Second Motif before his communion with Vader’s mask. We hear it when Han and Leia talk about him. We hear it in the interrogation scene when Rey learns about his preoccupation with Vader. Its first appearance, when Kylo and Hux argue about the map, could be explained by the fact that his past connection with Luke Skywalker motivates his search for the map.

Yet another possibility is that the Second Motif relates to the conflict between the light and dark sides in Kylo. We hear it both when Han and Leia discuss Ben’s seduction to the dark side and right before Kylo bemoans his temptation by the light. We hear it when Rey first sees Kylo, the terrifying figure from her vision, who will almost certainly tempt  _her_  toward the dark side. And arguably, when Kylo encounters Rey,  _he_  is tempted by the light, at least insofar as she divides his agenda from Snoke’s and the First Order’s; she distracts him from his pursuit of BB-8, and in the novelization, Snoke accuses him of having “compassion” for her. Of course, if the Second Motif were truly about Kylo’s internal division between light and dark, we’d expect to hear it at that pivotal “I’m being torn apart” moment, and we don’t.

##  **MY THEORY**

Here’s what I think: the Third Motif is about Kylo’s tyrannical use of force—in short, it’s about Kylo  _being Kylo Ren_ —whereas the Second Motif is about destiny and purpose, about the Force’s plans for both Kylo and Rey, and about Kylo pursuing what he thinks he’s fated to do.

The Second Motif is certainly associated with Kylo  _pursuing_  things. We first hear it when he tells Hux he wants the map—wants it for himself, not just to keep the Resistance from getting it, as Snoke and Hux do. We then hear it when he’s pursuing Rey in the Takodana forest. We hear it when he’s seeking whatever’s in her mind. We hear it when he’s returning from his audience from Snoke to find Rey. And we hear it a few times during the final duel when he’s coming after Rey. It’s his “I’m coming for you” music.

But we also hear it at moments that don’t relate obviously to pursuit. Case in point: when Han and Leia discuss Ben’s seduction to the dark side. But here’s the thing: we know from  _Bloodline_  that, before his fall, [Ben was with Luke on some kind of quest related to the early history of the Jedi](http://and-then-bam-cassiopeia.tumblr.com/post/143988010679/talk-about-the-lack-of-holocalls-please-some). My hunch is that Ben’s fall to the dark side, influenced by Snoke, was a perversion of this quest somehow, that Ben drew the wrong conclusions from it or misconstrued its implications for his own path in life. I think he and Luke discovered something important about the Force or the Jedi and Ben’s reaction was to become Kylo Ren—probably right after he learned he was descended from Darth Vader. Which leads me to the Vader’s helmet scene. We hear the Second Motif right before it, and there’s an allusion to  _Vader’s_  quest—"I will finish what you started.“ The film is of course deliberately vague about what Kylo thinks Vader started, but we’ll eventually find out, probably when we learn exactly what happened between Luke and Ben.

So: Second Motif = Kylo’s purpose, both generally and as he perceives it, Third Motif = Kylo being Kylo, master of the dark side. Obviously  _he_  thinks these two things are the same, so we should look at moments when the two motifs occur close together. Which brings me back to Finn and Rey, and why they’re each associated with one of the motifs.

If you go back and listen to the way the Second and Third Motifs interact in the lightsaber duel scene, it’s really interesting. Finn and Rey are running away, trying to get to the  _Falcon_ , and they see Kylo off-screen; we only hear his lightsaber and see the looks on their faces. This is the moment both Finn and Rey have to face their fears, when they can’t run away any longer. Rey walks toward Kylo as if she’s marching to a fate she’d hoped to avoid but knew was inevitable; this is the monster from her vision, this  _has_  to happen. The Second Motif plays very slowly—but it’s cut off by the Third Motif in a different key, which enters just as Kylo and his lightsaber enter the frame. The two motifs are in conflict here; they’re saying different things. The Second Motif belongs to  _Rey_  at this moment, to her acceptance of her Force-related destiny, which right now means facing Kylo. The Third Motif, on the other hand, belongs to  _Finn_  and what Kylo represents for him: tyranny, violent power, everything that’s preventing him from just living a quiet, peaceful life.

The music gets interesting again during the second half of Rey’s and Kylo’s duel. As he fights her, he pushes her back, pursuing her through the woods much the way he did on Takodana. We hear the Second Motif while he comes on relentlessly and Rey backs away from him—and then as he crowds her up against the edge of the cliff, we move into the Third Motif, in the same key, using that transition we hear in the end titles. Unlike before, the Second Motif  _culminates_  in the Third Motif with a feeling of narrative cause-and-effect. Which is to say, Kylo’s pursuit of Rey culminates in a tyrannical exercise of his power. But then, of course, it doesn’t. He doesn’t kill Rey; he offers to be her teacher instead. And the music reflects this odd turn—the Third Motif modulates, shifts keys and acquires some additional phrases, sounding much less confident, much less tyrannical. Then we get the Force theme as Rey calls on the Force—and then the rest of the scene is just Rey’s theme as Rey thoroughly kicks Kylo’s ass. (Something similar happens in the interrogation scene, when the shift from Kylo’s Second Motif to Rey’s theme signals the battle’s turn in her favor.)

We know that Rey’s theme and the Third Motif are musically related, by their first and last three notes, respectively. I think what’ll happen is this: whatever Ben learned while traveling the galaxy with Luke will have given him a sense that he has a purpose, and he’ll have concluded that to fulfill this purpose, he had to become Kylo Ren. But he’ll also be aware that his destiny includes Rey somehow, [whether because he’s had a Force vision like hers](http://starwarsnonsense.tumblr.com/post/144105609299/through-a-glass-darkly-or-ruminations-on-a), or whatever. For a while, it’ll seem like Rey and Kylo are competitors for a single destiny—so, the Second Motif culminating in the Third Motif here signifies Kylo’s belief that he is the sole heir to whatever purpose he recognizes. Rey, of course, challenges him for this. But eventually it’ll turn out they have to cooperate to do what the Force needs them to get done. Neither of them is the sole heir; the Force needs them both. That’s why their musical themes are related. But it’s also why Rey’s theme is related to Kylo’s  _Third_ Motif: because that’s the motif that represents his Kylo Ren persona, the person he thinks he has to be to fulfill his fated purpose.

So that’s my reading of Kylo’s music. I’d welcome any readings you all have! Please use my list of timecodes to review the evidence for yourselves.

##  **APPENDIX: STAR WARS OXYGEN**

The podcast[ Star Wars Oxygen](http://www.rebelforceradio.com/star-wars-oxygen/?rq=oxygen), hosted by David Collins and Jimmy Mac from [Rebel Force Radio](http://www.rebelforceradio.com/), does thorough but non-technical analysis of  _Star Wars_  music, including the storytelling implications of particular themes and motifs. If you’d rather not listen to all thirty hours of it, here are some key passages about the TFA soundtrack and Kylo Ren’s motifs:

[ **Star Wars Oxygen vol. 25** ](http://www.rebelforceradio.com/shows/2015/12/30/star-wars-oxygen-vol-25-the-force-awakens-part-1)

> 22:57 - 36:37: Breakdown of Rey’s Theme and its relation to the Force Theme. (For more on the Force Theme, see[ Star Wars Oxygen vol. 2](http://www.rebelforceradio.com/shows/2015/10/1/star-wars-oxygen-vol-2), 30:53 - 39:59.)

[ **Star Wars Oxygen vol. 26** ](http://www.rebelforceradio.com/shows/2016/1/14/star-wars-oxygen-vol-26-the-force-awakens-part-2)

> 14:45 - 17:20: Musical relationships between Kylo Ren’s music and the Imperial March. (For more context on the Emperor’s theme, see[ Star Wars Oxygen vol. 10](http://www.rebelforceradio.com/shows/2015/10/1/star-wars-oxygen-vol-10) first, 43:12 - 47:50.) First statement of Kylo Ren’s Third motif is accompanied by "the rhythm and the chord structure” of the Imperial March (as Ren walks down the shuttle ramp). David interprets this almost-quote as suggesting that “he’s not quite Darth Vader.”
> 
> 30:12 - 34:55: Kylo Ren’s Third motif and its relationship to Rey’s Theme. David says “the last three notes of Kylo Ren’s theme are the same as the first three notes of Rey’s theme.”
> 
> 41:19 - 44:54: Snoke’s theme and the Darth Plagueis theory.

[ **Star Wars Oxygen vol. 27** ](http://www.rebelforceradio.com/shows/2016/2/2/star-wars-oxygen-vol-28-tfa-part-3)

> 41:45 - 46:40: Deeper discussion of Kylo Ren’s two motifs and possible connections to other themes. David says the Second Motif “has something to do with Kylo Ren and Rey’s connection.” He says the First Motif is related to the Force Theme, “like dark side gone bad,” and the Second Motif is "more tragic, and somehow related to [Kylo’s] pull to the light, as opposed to the flat-out tyranny” of the Third Motif. Jimmy says the Third Motif is “entrance music” but “then he has his getting to know you music.” There’s also a good discussion of the relationship between Kylo’s Third Motif and Rey’s theme.
> 
> 53:03 - 58:46: Nice discussion of Han and Leia’s theme.

[ **Star Wars Oxygen vol. 28** ](http://www.rebelforceradio.com/shows/2016/2/17/star-wars-oxygen-vol-28-tfa-part-3)

> 13:33 - 15:46: Possible relationships between Kylo’s motifs and other themes, such as Han and Leia’s theme and the Emperor’s theme.

[ **Star Wars Oxygen vol. 29** ](http://www.rebelforceradio.com/shows/2016/3/16)

> 49:35 - 50:56: Kylo Ren’s Second Motif is in the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade soundtrack!
> 
> 50:57 - 59:56: The cue "Torn Apart” (Han’s death scene) and its connections with themes from the prequels. David argues that the first part evokes “Across the Stars” and Anakin’s Theme, and the music that accompanies Kylo stabbing Han evokes “Anakin’s Dark Deeds” from ROTS (the Order 66 music). (For Anakin’s Theme, see[ Star Wars Oxygen vol. 14](http://www.rebelforceradio.com/shows/2015/9/30/star-wars-oxygen-vol-14), 1:02:00 - 1:14:25. For Across the Stars, see[ Star Wars Oxygen vol. 18](http://www.rebelforceradio.com/shows/2015/9/14/star-wars-oxygen-vol-18), 23:08 - 34:48.)

[p.s. Thanks to huxcrying for the least fun beta-reading she’s ever done!]

**Author's Note:**

> This meta was originally posted on Tumblr, but I'm posting it here to make sure it's preserved.


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